War Zone-Equestria

“This is crazy!” Lyra said in a quiet voice to Back Stab. “I know we’ve been trained for ages and are more than qualified to complete the task… but how in Equestria are we gunna get all the slave ponies out without being caught?!” She was worried and rather stressed, but kept talking as quietly as possible.

”Getting in will be a piece of cake, but no pony said getting out was gunna be easy…” the changeling told her, in a similarly quiet voice. Suddenly Pinkie ran over to them, but was taking care to also be quiet.

“Did somepony say cake?” she said looking at them both eagerly as if she was expecting one of them to pull out a tasty, glazed treat.”

”Hush you lot, we don’t wanna be attractin any unnecasary attention, especially after the trouble we went through ta get this far.” Applejack told them.

Rainbow Dash was sitting besides Shadow Hack and Fluttershy, also taking care to try and keep quiet.

”Let’s go over the plan again. We get inside, split up, find the slave ponies, and meet back on the castle grounds, and then what? If we manage against all odds to get that far unnoticed, then do we just try and escape? What if somepony doesn’t even make it to the grounds to regroup?” Rainbow Dash asked them both, equally as concerned as Lyra about their mission.

“Calm down R.D. I don’t like to think about the future personally, I prefer to let events just play out on their own, cause if I assume my next move to early, and something goes wrong, I’m basically screwed. That’s why I’ve never been failed a mission before in my life. I just roll with the flow of things.” Shadow Hack told her. She was far calmer and more laid back than any of the ponies, but being a griffin she might have felt her threatening size overwhelmed the need to be afraid.

“I certainly hope none of the slave ponies have been hurt. I hate that I’d feel personally responsible for any injuries they could have received. Still… hurt or not, I’ll fight to save them and take down anypony who gets in our way.” Fluttershy told them.

Twilight was watching all the conversations through Derpy’s eyes, just as she’d seen it when she was there. She felt rather awkward seeing Fluttershy talk the way she was about fighting, even if she wasn’t the Fluttershy she knew.

Suddenly Derpy’s head turned to the left and Twilight lost sight of the others, but could still hear the quiet conversations. Twilight felt so strange. Viewing a memory was far more different then sharing one. Instead of just seeing the scenes play out in her head, she felt like she was apart of them, but only through sight and sound. She couldn’t move or look a different direction; she wasn’t even sure she had any sort of physical body. She could only watch through the eyes of the gray pegasus sitting to the left of the others, fiddling with her hoof gun.

”Private?” a voice whispered in Derpy’s direction. Derpy snapped up and stopped fiddling with her hoof gun, looking over to find Rarity walking over to her. She brought her hoof up to salute.

“Oh come now there’s no need for formalities like that. I prefer to think a team judges another by character, instead of rank.” Rarity told her sitting beside her. Derpy smiled and put her hoof back down.

”Me and Twilight are organizing the groups were going in. We’ll be splitting into 5 pairs. You’ll be going with Twilight. We’ll be searching the castle for a maximum of one hour. If you and Twilight don’t find the slaves, try and regroup with another pair and continue your search. After an hour regardless of any findings, you must return to the castle grounds. If you do find slave ponies, make sure you lead them through the castle. You can’t afford for them to get caught wondering… it’ll only make saving them harder. Just remember, don’t be nervous, you’ve been trained for this sort of thing. Don’t forget though, above everything else; remain out of sight. If you can remain hidden your job won’t have to turn into a deadly firefight.” Rarity thoroughly explained the task trying to make sure that Derpy understood.

Derpy gave a weak smile and nod, “Thanks miss…” she stopped. She’d only just joined the team at the last minute, and hardly knew any of the other soldiers’ names.

”My name’s Rarity. Just use that ok? Like I said; no need to be so formal.”

Derpy’s smile widened a little. She was still nervous but at least she felt a little calmer. “Thanks Rarity.” She said.

“My pleasure, I just can’t stand to see another soldier cracking under pressure. Best get ready now. We’re about to begin the mission.” Rarity said, walking over to the others making sure they were briefed and ready.

Derpy made some last second adjustments to her hoof gun. It differed from everyone else’s because she’d personally added a knife holder to attach to hers. It was a brilliant addition because if she was graced with the opportunity to stab her opponent, she’d be able to impale them, and then fire a bullet off for extra damage. She’d even gone as far as to make the blade retractable, so that she wouldn’t blunt it while walking, as it went over her hoof about 15cm. She made sure it was working properly as it would be her only weapon in the castle, unless a firefight broke out as Rarity had said.

Twilight moved from her position in front of the group and turned around to face them. “Alright everypony; It’s time to move out. Do you all know everything you need to know?”

The group gave a silent nod of approval.

“Great! Oh and before we move out, everypony take one of these…” Twilight turned around and opened a box to the side of her and revealed several jet black hollowed cylinders. She picked them up with her magic and gave one out to each member of the team.

“Ugh, Twi… what are these things?” Applejack asked. Looking at it confused.

”At the moment the engineers are calling them muters. They negate the sound of your hoof guns to almost a whisper, but they should still do just as much damage.” Twilight explained attaching the device to her hoof gun. Luckily they were small enough to attach to the guns barrel without stretching out over anypony’s hooves. Back Stab used a modified hoof gun that would disappear whenever he was in a different form. Shadow Hack had a larger, more modified gun then the others; the silencer was even suited to the size of her rifle. But she denied the muter. “I don’t plan on needing to use a weapon.”

She was confident, but Twilight knew confidence only went so far.

Twilight proceeded to prep the troops one last time, just to make sure they were definitely ready. “So Back Stab and Shadow Hack, you two will get us into the castle grounds; we’ll navigate silently through the city; and once were in the castle, we’ll split into groups. Private Derpy, you’ll be assisting me, Rarity, you’ll go with Applejack, Lyra I want you to go with Shadow Hack, Pinkie you’ll go with Rainbow, and Fluttershy, you’ll go with backstab.”

“Alright” they all agreed.

“Good. Let’s go get our people back!” Twilight said.

The gates to Canterlot weren’t heavily guarded, but they were fortified with many planks and columns. The only way in or out was through one door. A lone stallion guarded the entrance wearing a half moon crest on his chest. Twilight initiated the plan whispering to Back Stab and Shadow Hack.

”You two, work your magic.”

Back Stab made his way over to a hill that obscured him from the guard pony’s view and sat on the road and began counting down from 30, while at the same time. Shadow Hack flew off in the opposite direction almost in the blink of an eye, without making so much as a peep or rustle in the long grass.

Finally Back Stab reached zero and activated his magical changeling abilities. He made himself look exactly like Princess Luna. Right down to the smallest detail. Even the hair was sparkling to the same extent. Twilight watched her soldier calmly make his way towards the gate, while the other Twilight watched from Derpy’s eyes.

’they were going to trick the enemy into letting them in’ Twilight realized.

Back Stab approached the gate and the guard pony snapped up almost immediately. Was Princess Luna really walking right in front of him? He found himself quickly assuming a bow and pushing open the door, but Back Stab just stood there watching him with a smirk on his face. The guard could see this face on Luna’s and nervously shifted backwards a little. “Something wrong Princess Luna?” He asked her, unable to shift his gaze from her evil stare. Back Stab decided to have a quick joke before the plan progressed. He spoke cleanly and fluently with Luna’s voice while in her form. “Just… something’s wrong with your neck...” He said, clearly aware that he was making the stallion very uneasy.

”M-my neck?” the stallion asked confused.

“Yes. I think it would look much better without that little head of yours on top of it… don’t you?” he asked the stallion who was now shaking so much that he was creating an odor of fear and sweat, but the stallion didn’t have any time to react to Luna’s statement before two large eagle arms with massive shining claws grasped onto his head, and twisted it violently in a whole 360º revolution. The claws were poking holes into the spots they grabbed and bone and muscle could be seen being forcibly removed from their original locations, followed by strong hissing pops of blood that made its way out of the ripped skin. Shadow Hack twisted the head in another 360º and completely removed it with almost no effort. She tossed it aside, far out of view of anypony who might enter the gate. The stallion’s body collapsed and bits of what remained on his neck littered the ground, along with blood spurting and popping from several rugged, rough spots where the head had just been ripped off. The soldiers didn’t seem to mind the sight; not even Rarity shifted her gaze; but if Twilight wasn’t seeing this from Derpy’s point of view and had a sentient form, she would have been incredibly sick, but being inside Derpy’s head prevented her from being able perform any of her bodily functions or reactions.

Making haste the group quickly advanced to the gate, just as the griffin had thrown the stallion’s dead body further than the head.

“Back Stab; turn yourself into one of the guards and check to see if anypony is watching the gate.” Twilight instructed.

Back Stab nodded and his body started to lightly shiver. Everypony watched on as a green torrent of fire quickly consumed his body and almost instantly changed his appearance. His blue slit eyes had turned into those of the guard pony’s that he’d faced mere seconds ago, his small black horn descended into his skull, his ripped rugged wings folded into his body and glued themselves to it, and the rest of his body grew chunks of bare flesh into the many gaps and open sections of his legs. A thin coat of brown fur covered the new layer of skin, a short ruffled mane grew from his head to his lower neck, along with a tail on his hind to match the style of his mane, and a cutie mark flashed and rest on his flank. The final change was a uniform, which morphed over the front region of his body, with a flashlight attached to it, and a small cap, that appeared on his head to match the uniform. Within the blink of an eye Back Stab had completely replicated the stallion that had just been void of his life less than a minute ago.

He peered through the door that had been opened for him by his own victim, and peeked around the area. There was no pony watching them from above, or any windows of buildings that still stood, but there was instead another guard pony on the other side of the door, sleeping on a fold up chair. He obviously never had much to worry about as no pony ever came in or out of Canterlot except Luna on rare occasions.

‘This is all too easy’ Back Stab thought to himself. He moved back through the door and faced Twilight.

“There’s a lone guard sleeping on the job on the other side of the door, but apart from him I can’t see any other guards or patrols.” He informed her.

“Perfect. You take out the guard and we’ll begin phase 2 of the plan.” Twilight said.

Back Stab nodded and smirked as he calmly walked over to the sleeping stallion, still looking exactly like the one he had taken the form of.

He tapped the sleeping stallion on the forehead and gave him a rough whack to the face.

The startled pony woke up with a fright and fell to the floor with a yelp.

“That could have been a lot worse for you!” Back Stab scolded, using the exact voice of the pony he was interpreting. “If Princess Luna had come through here and found you napping on the job, she’d have your head! You should consider yourself lucky I woke you first!” he said in the same angry tone, showing authority over the other guard.

“Yes, sorry. I-I guess I’m just a little tired of nothing happening in this job.” The stallion said turning around to pick up his folding chair.

Back Stabs wicked side flared up and he morphed a sharp blade into his front left leg, replacing the lower level and hoof of the stallion disguise, but the other stallion hadn’t heard or noticed.

“So you want something to happen?” Back Stab asked rhetorically. “I’ll make something happen!” he said. All in an instant, he plunged the blade right into the back of the stallion’s neck, twisting it in place completely silencing any noise the guard could have made, leaving him with choking and coughing unable to even suck in air. Back Stab continued to twist the blade in place to cause as much non-lethal pain as he could, and then pushed his new arm down the neck and into the back of his victim, slicing nerves, muscle, tendons, organs, and even dislodging bones and moving them through the lower back of the stallion’s body. The guard tried to scream out in pain and fear, but all that escaped his mouth were sputters of weak gasps and blood, even chunks of muscle that had been removed and pushed into his throat made their way onto the pool of bile fluids on the ground in front of him. Reaching the mid level of the stallions back with his blade, Back Stab decided he would just grant the stallion a kindness, and ripped the blade up sideways through his body, snapping and splitting his spinal cord and ripping out any muscle and organ attached to his reddened, blade leg. He then plunged the blade once more into the guard’s body with fierce accuracy, piercing and completely destroying the stallion’s heart. The choked gargling of the guard trying to gasp for air suddenly ceased, and the life fled from his body along with his natural color and blood. Back Stab completely removed his blade leg from the guard’s body and morphed it back to his natural rigid leg, along with the rest of his body. He smiled looking down at the lifeless victim and chuckled.

“Now you can sleep forever.” He said redundantly to the dead stallion.

Twilight had seen most of the act and walked up to Back Stab. “How did you morph your leg into a blade?” she asked him, “I thought changelings could only morph into a living creature.” She said confused.

“That’s true, but I’ve learned to use my magic to my advantage and morph parts of my body into non sentient objects. But it only works with one part of the body, I can’t morph my whole body into something like a chair, one because I don’t think it’s possible, and two if it were and I did it, I would cease to live and become a chair.” He explained.

Twilight found it fascinating that he had figured out how to manipulate his power so well, but the time for discussing magic wasn’t available and she knew that they had a mission to complete.

”Well done Back Stab, obviously handiwork like this is what got you your code name. Shadow Hack? Grab the body and toss it out into the field with the other guard.” She ordered to the griffin. She nodded and walked forward, and without even thinking to avoid the messy patches of body fluid and entrails that were covering the mangled body, she picked it up with one hand and turned around to walk out the gate. As she went by everypony else, they all got a view of the horrendous work their fellow soldier had produced. Pinkie and Lyra seemed to be the only two to flinch at the sight, but they didn’t show any signs of wanting feel sick or gag at the odor that came along with the mess. But as Twilight watched through Derpy’s eyes she wanted so bad to throw up and stop watching, but she still found that against everything she wanted, she couldn’t. Derpy was doing her a massive favor in even bringing up the horrible memories for her, and she wasn’t going to waste her effort. The griffin took the body outside and pelted it off to the side of the castle out of sight.

Derpy’s thoughts quickly skipped a few sections of the group sneaking up to the castle, and went to the point of the mission where Twilight had led her group unseen to the back of Canterlot castle.

“Ok, Rarity and Applejack, you two can go in from the garden entrance. Lyra, use your magic to get you and Shadow Hack through the 2nd furthest wall from the east courtyard. Rainbow Dash, I want you to fly up to the roof of the castle vaults with Pinkie and infiltrate through the smallest stain glass window you can with as little noise as possible, and Backstab, I want you and Fluttershy to go through the south-most spire. Remember your briefing. Don’t get caught and meet back here before the hours up. Find as many of the slaves as you can and try to find another group if you can’t find any slave ponies. This is it everypony. Good luck.” Twilight said as she turned around and cast a translucent looking spell on the wall in front of her. As she peeked her head through slowly, the other groups dispersed and went to their ordered locations. Twilight moved her head out and looked at Derpy.

“The coast is clear. You ready to go Private?” she asked her.

Derpy was nervous, but she hid it as best she could. Besides, she couldn’t back out considering the fact she had to beg to even get a position in this mission.

She gulped down the feeling of fear growing in her throat and nodded, “Mm hmm.”

“Good, go on in, and I’ll lead the way once we’re inside.” Twilight said stepping aside for Derpy. She trotted into the magical entrance and found herself in the castle on the other side of the wall. Twilight followed her and the magic faded from the wall.

Twilight fired a shot into the ground with her hoof gun, but with the muter on the barrel. Derpy was surprised that it actually did make hardly any noise at all. The bullet cracked into the ground and made a very small ditch of chipped cement. She then used her magic to reduce the bullet to a material as thin as dust and sprinkled it around the small hole.

“Memorize the area private. We’ll use this same spot as our exit once we find the slaves.” Twilight told her referring to the hole she just made as a sign to mark where they needed to exit.

Derpy started to flash forward her thoughts of reaching the dungeons, as she followed Twilight quietly through the large halls of the castle, sticking to the shadows and making sure to not make any loud noises. Before long they found what they were searching for. An open room with a large descending staircase; that was Twilight’s first thought on reaching the dungeons where the slaves were likely being held.

Derpy stopped flicking forward and her memory played out as it had occurred originally.

Twilight was about to walk towards the stone entrance, but Derpy grabbed her and pulled her back. She pointed at the door to notice a guard was patrolling the inside of it and had just walked into Derpy’s line of sight.

Twilight watching through Derpy’s eyes wondered how the other Twilight could have expected to just go straight through without running into any trouble.

Twilight looked at Derpy and nodded with a smile to show a thank you.

Derpy nodded back and then spread her wings. She glided up over the door looking in all directions. And landed on the opposite side from which the guard was walking. She nodded to the other side of the door once the guard had passed and Twilight ran over there. Derpy quick as a flash shifted to the same side of the door, to tell Twilight her plan.

“We can take out the guard and get through here really quickly if we play it slow. Get behind him if you can and when I give a signal. Grab his mouth and I’ll make my move.” She said not revealing any other information.

Twilight wasn’t used to taking orders, but she decided to give Derpy a chance to show her ability for her quick reactions before. She did what Derpy said and silently walked into the room sneaking behind the guard. Derpy went through the door and glided up, landing in a shadow of to the left of the guard’s path silent as ever.

‘The guard didn’t even notice her at all’ Twilight thought as she watched him approach Derpy’s hiding place.

Derpy was almost invisible, but poked a feather of her wing into Twilight’s sight and brought it back down to initiate a signal. In a matter of 1 second Twilight leaped up onto the guard and threw her right arm around his neck, while keeping the left across his mouth, to keep him from making any noises apart from muffled gasps and yells. Almost as quick as she acted Derpy emerged from the shadow and flicked her hoof gun to the left, making her self built knife unsheathe itself and click into a locked position. The glimmer from the blade shined right into the guards eyes and in the very same instant, disappeared sinking into his chest. Derpy knew the blade was capable of going straight through him and piercing Twilight, so she had carefully angled it upwards to instead go through his chest and pierce a spot in his neck. The guard let out a huge cry of pain, but again it was just a futile muffled yelp. Blood was already pouring from the stab wound dripping off the blade as she twisted it inside of him, making his muffled cries turn into gargles, as blood started to froth up around Twilight’s arm which was still tightly securing his mouth shut. Derpy finished him off with a muted shot from her hoof gun firing it in the same direction the knife was going, and the bullet ripped straight through him, finding a resting spot halfway through his brain. Twilight held on still as the guards kicking and fighting had been reduced to minor twitches. Derpy pulled out the blade and flicked her hoof up and left, which unlocked the blade and sent it back into its compartment in the modified hoof gun. Twilight dragged the soldier into the dark corner Derpy had hid in not long before that, and dropped the body there, as it was the only spot she could see that would at least render a dead body invisible. She then used her magic on the bloody trail that had been created from the wounds in the stallion’s torso, and made it bubble like acid, before vanishing as if it was never there.

Twilight was finding it hard to watch. She knew the two had no other option but to deal with the guard, but she had never been subjected to such gory sights before in her life. Still she watched on as the other Twilight walked towards Derpy, congratulated her on a good kill and successful strategy, and then led her down the spiraling stone stair case.

When they reached the bottom they looked out the stone entrance before them and saw what looked like a line of cells. Many of them empty, but some filled with dirty, ragged ponies.

“We did it! We found the slaves” Twilight said ecstatically but quietly to Derpy patting her on the back. She peeked out the door and looked around for a guard but there were none in sight. The room seemed to be a long stony hallway with another staircase at the other side.

Having one last check for a guard, Twilight turned to Derpy.

“I’m going to make sure there are no enchantments on these cells, and try and free the slave ponies. I want you to go up the staircase over there and make sure there are no guards patrolling upstairs. If there are, take them out.” Twilight instructed.

Derpy acknowledged her request and glided across the room to the other staircase. She noticed that there was also a passage leading down, but she couldn’t follow it without filling in her instructions and gaining permission first. She flew up the stairs and as expected; there was indeed a guard patrolling. She stayed hidden down a few stairs and flicked out her blade again and began to think of a way she could take him out quietly. But once she had decided on a method, she heard a couple of crunch noises coming from the room, and then a few quick, faint whistle noises. She ran up stairs to see Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy all holding the guard down. They each seemed to have fired a shot into his throat and abdomen, before throwing him against the wall, while he groaned in pain. Before he had a chance to move out of the way, Applejack kicked him directly in the head against the stone wall of the room, with so much power that his head actually crunched and partially squashed inwards, as brain matter and chipped bone made its way out of his bloodied and mutilated skull. The body fell to the floor with a light plop and blood started to pool all around it. The three ponies nodded at each other.

“Come on, we don’t have much time left.” Fluttershy told them turning towards the stairs, only to see Derpy walking towards them from the staircase.

Derpy flicked her blade back and walked to the group.

“Nice kill you guys. The dungeons are just down the stairs here. You can help me and Twilight get all the slave ponies out of the cells.” She said point at the staircase.

“Well we best hurry then! We gotta get tha hay outta here!” Applejack told her sweating as if she had been running around in the hot light of day.

“Huh? Why? What’s wrong?” Derpy asked her confused, “We still got 25 minutes to complete the mission…”

“Not anymore! We’ve been discovered! Back Stab, Lyra and Shadow Hack, risked their lives to let Fluttershy escape.” Rarity said. “They’re fighting Luna’s right hand soldier Crossfire as we speak, and we haven’t found any sign’s of Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie.”

Derpy was worried now, what if the other 3 were killed. She’d heard of Cross Fire and knew she was a dangerous pony to get into a scruff with. Even three to one the odds still didn’t stack up well for the soldiers, even if one of them was a griffin.

“Come on then, let’s get the job done, find Rainbow and Pinkie, and get out!” Derpy led the group downstairs to Twilight. Twilight had almost opened all the cells before she looked at them, but it didn’t take long for her to be able to tell something was wrong.

“Twilight, we’ve got a situation!” Fluttershy said as she ran forward.

“What happened? And where are your partners?” Twilight asked ready for bad news.

“They’re fighting for their lives in one of the castle chambers against Cross Fire! We have to get out of here as soon as we can!” Fluttershy answered stopping in front of Twilight, and panting for air.

“Oh for the love of Celestia, why were you caught?!” Twilight asked confused.

“She already knew we were here.” Rarity said with a worried look. “As far as we know Luna doesn’t know were here yet, but if Cross Fire beats the other 3 before we can find Pinkie and Rainbow, get the slaves, and leave; we’re as good as dead!”

“Well then hurry and open these cages and get the slaves out on the double!” Twilight said, a look of determination finding its way to her expression.

“Twilight? There are stairs leading further into the dungeons. There could be more slaves down there… Do you want me to go check it out?” Derpy asked Twilight as she used her magic to unlock the cells.

“Yes, have Applejack go with you.” Twilight told her. “Fluttershy, go upstairs and keep an eye out for Pinkie and Rainbow and any of the others.” Twilight instructed turning to the yellow pegasus.

“Right!” She said as she glided towards the stairs and run up them.

Twilight still watching the memory play by, took note of how much more confident the Fluttershy of this dimension was. She kept watching but already knew that the mission wouldn’t end well.

Derpy pulled Applejack and had her run downstairs with her. There were indeed more slaves down here in more cells, but they were fillies and colts. There were no guards. So the pair started to break down the cell doors in any way they could as fast as they could; Applejack bucking them down and Derpy shooting the locks open. Before long they had released most of the fillies and colts, but they had taken to long to initiate a rescue mission, and several had been killed by the conditions of their prisons. The ones that were still alive were in bad condition, but the two soldiers had no intention of letting any more die. Applejack suddenly lit up, because amongst the group, she had found her sister, huddled with Scootaloo. She was ecstatic to see her after being separated for so long. She went straight up and hugged her.

“Apple Bloom! Thank goodness yer alright! Me, Big Mac and Granny Smith, have bin worried sick! C’mon, let’s get you two outta here!” she said hushing the fillies out the cell.

“Thank goodness ye came te get us sis… Ah don’t think we’d have lasted another day.” Apple Bloom said weakly, with a raspy, dried out voice.

“Wait, what about Sweetie Belle? Aint she with you two?” Applejack asked confused.

The two fillies looked down and bit their lips as depressing looks spread across their faces. Applejack understood instantly.

“Rarity’s gunna be devastated… We need to leave, now!” she picked up her sister and her friend, and Derpy followed after her making sure that all the foals were making their way up the stairs. There were about 19 to account for; Derpy remembered this incase they got separated.

They ran upstairs to see Rainbow Dash, Pinkie and Fluttershy had all returned. Scootaloo’s face lit up instantly.

“Rainbow Dash!” She yelled leaping from Applejack’s back to go see her favorite pegasus.

“There you are Scoot. Good to see you’re alright.” Rainbow remarked seeing the excited little filly. Scootaloo ran right up to her and hugged her as if she hadn’t seen her for years. Rainbow Dash giggled a little and rubbed the filly’s head. “Hey you even got your cutie mark.” Rainbow said noticing the speedy looking scooter on her flank. Scootaloo started to tell her how she got it while Twilight was finishing of the cell doors.

Twilight opened the last one with any slaves in it; they walked out and joined their peers, while trying to finds their foals if they had any to look for. Rarity walked over to Applejack and Derpy, but they knew what she was going to ask them, and the looks on their faces told Rarity her answer straight away. Her eyes welled up and tears started to drip from them.

“I dunno what te tell ya Rarity, Sweetie Belle was’n even down there…” Applejack told her regrettably. Apple Bloom could see the sadness on her face and thought she had to know what had happened to her sister.

“Rarity? Do ya wanna know what happened te Sweetie Belle? I can tell ya, but ye won’t like it.” Apple Bloom warned her to make sure she understood that.

“She never came with us to the base cause she… she was killed by Luna before tha bombs hit the town. We couldn’t protect her no matter how hard we tried te fight Luna’s magic. It’s our fault she’s gone.” Apple Bloom explained with tears welling up in her own eyes as she sniffed trying to contain them.

Rarity was crying at the news, but as soon as she heard Apple Bloom say it was Scootaloo’s and her fault, she forgot her emotion and turned to face her directly.

“Apple Bloom, don’t you ever dare believe that it was either of your faults! The only one in the wrong is Luna. You girls couldn’t have possibly done anything to stop her.” Rarity scolded her, wondering why Apple Bloom had said something so ridiculous.

“So… So you don’t hate us then?” Apple Bloom asked with tears forcing their way out of her eyes.

”Of course not darling, you were never in the wrong.” Rarity said giving Apple bloom a light hug, still not managing to smile though after the news about her sister.

Apple Bloom was happy that Rarity had been so kind and understanding, but also had no hope of smiling at for the time being.

“Ok everypony! We have to get out of here. Follow me.” Twilight said as she addressed the whole group and turned towards the staircase.

Twilight was watching her counterpart through Derpy’s eyes and marveling at how good a leader she was.

There were about 27 or more mares and stallions from the cells that were running up the stairs with their fillies and colts, The girls knew it wasn’t all the slaves, but if they stayed any longer they risked running into Luna. As they reached the top of the stairs Twilight ran straight into Lyra who was on a desperate run to find them. They got up quickly, a little dazed, but were glad to see each other. Lyra was in a shocking condition with bruises all over her and several cuts all over her face and body.

“Twilight! Thank goodness. We have to leave! Right now! Shadow Hack and Back Stab made me come warn you; they aren’t going to last much longer against Cross Fire! She’s too strong!”

“I didn’t think I’d ever hear of an earth pony topping a griffin in a fight.” Twilight said, thinking about the sacrifice that the griffin and changeling had made.

Twilight realized they didn’t have time to go to the old exit point and had to make a new one. She powered up her horn and blew a hole right through the thick stone castle wall to her right. It led outside, straight to the middle of Canterlot. Twilight knew it was a huge risk to expose themselves that much, but she didn’t have a choice; soon enough the entire army of guards would be upon them.

“Everyone out now! Head for the main gate to the city! Wait there for us to direct you to the Solar Army base!” Twilight commanded all the slaves. In a flurry of hooves, manes and tails the large group of ponies had rushed outside, except for the soldiers, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo. It was now later than before as the light that had remained in the sky 40 minutes earlier had fled and been replaced by the deep blue of the moon and night sky.

“We have to get these ponies to safety. If guards attack, stand your ground and fight. Once were out of the city, we’ll be much safer. Lyra, and Rarity; we’re the last 3 unicorns in Equestria now; we have to stick together until we escape.” Twilight told them.

Everyone was nervous and hardly ready, but then another voice echoed through the passage; a deep, evil voice that struck fear into all the ponies there.

“You don’t honestly think your going to escape though do you?”

Twilight turned around and gasped. There at the other end of the tunnel was Luna and her assistant Cross Fire both grinning as they walked towards the group.

“There you are little unicorn. Why’d you run off and leave your friends. We had so much more fun after you left.” Cross Fire teased at Lyra.

“Get bucked you bitch!” She responded angrily. Lyra knew that her friends were dead, and she absolutely despised that Cross Fire was making jokes about it.

“Ooh she has such a foul mouth, doesn’t she Luna?” Cross Fire said almost wanting to laugh at the futile attempt to offend her.

”Indeed. We certainly can’t have any of that in my castle!” Luna said as she glared with an evil look in her eyes. Twilight still watching carefully at what Derpy was seeing had a sudden shock of realization. Just for a second… she could have sworn that Luna’s eyes were different… almost like the eyes of… Nightmare Moon!

But the other soldiers didn’t notice this.

Twilight wasn’t listening. She was thinking about the danger presented to her and her friends, and how she could get them out.

“Don’t listen to anything they say you lot. It’s about time we left!” Twilight said firing a flurry of magical spells at Luna and Cross Fire, momentarily creating a purple cloud of power to shield them from Luna’s sight.

Luna easily ignored the magic, but as soon as she had cleared the mist with her own magic. The group was gone.

Twilight was scared for Derpy and her group. She knew that obviously Derpy was going to be ok because she was here now, but she knew the others weren’t going to make it out.

Twilight stopped and noticed Cross Fire was fast approaching them, Luna just seemed to be taking her sweet time to enjoy the show. “Everypony keep going and get the slaves out of here. I’ll hold them off.”

But this time none of the ponies followed the order. They all stopped in front of Twilight and turned around with her.

“What are you all doing? I told you to keep going!”

“And you expect us to listen to that Twilight?” Pinkie asked her not expecting a straight answer.

“We aint leaving you behind Twi! We’re stickin with you!” Applejack said. “Apple Bloom, go with Scootaloo and join the slaves outside. If nopony comes back to get you… I’m certain you’ll know how to get back to the base.”

”Whaddya ya mean ‘if no pony comes to get us’? I aint leaving here without you sis!” Apple Bloom told her determined to stay with her.

“Apple Bloom if something happens to you I won’t be able to live with the guilt. You have to go with Scootaloo right now.”

“But…”

”Apple Bloom!”

“Listen ta me!” Apple Bloom yelled startling her sister. “What if ya don’t come back?! How em I gunna live with the guilt of knowing I didn’t fight with you!”

“Apple Bloom you got nothing to be feelin guilty about. I’m only askin you to go for your own safety. I love you sis, so do me a favor and live, for me.”

Apple Bloom was breaking down to tears. She didn’t want to leave her sister there; she knew that she probably would never see her again.

“Scootaloo, take Apple Bloom and get out of here, you two don’t have the strength to fight this fight.” Rainbow Dash instructed her little follower.

Scootaloo seemed hesitant, but she knew she’d never win an argument against Rainbow Dash. With a weak nod she ran over to her distraught friend and pulled her along to follow her.

Apple Bloom refused for a few moments, but gave in.

“You come back Applejack! You have to! You have to!” Apple Bloom yelled out to her sister as she ran off with Scootaloo crying and breathing at unsteady pace. Applejack didn’t reply though, she turned around and returned her gaze to Cross Fire who was making her way towards the group.

“For the last time, none of you have to do this!  Why should all of us you have to die when only I need to!” Twilight asked the group, but she already knew the answer.

“Because your our best friend Twilight! And Friendship over rules ranks in every way! If your going to go down, we’re going down with you!” Rainbow Dash told her, with everyone else nodding in agreement.

“But what about the slaves?” Twilight asked thinking about her mission.

“We’ve fulfilled our duty in getting them out.” Rarity told her.

“But part of that duty was getting them safely to the base!” Twilight objected again.

“Twilight we aren’t leaving you! Nothing you can say will change that.” Fluttershy said, receiving a nod of agreement from the others.

“But I’m doing this for you guys, as my team, and my friends! I don’t want to see any of you get hurt any more.” Twilight said in one last attempt to make the girls keep going.

“We didn’t ask you to do it Twilight. We fight by your side and that’s that! Besides, you already said that being the last 3 unicorns we need to stick together.” Rarity reminded her.

Twilight had so many objections. But realized they weren’t going to get her anywhere.

“….Ok! But hear me out. If we don’t make it out of this, I want anypony who does survive to go and help the slaves. No ifs or buts! Understand?”

The whole group nodded. They all looked up at Cross Fire who seemed to be enjoying the little argument.

“Good luck everypony.” Twilight said to the others.

Cross Fire stood up. It was time for the fight to begin.

Luna took to the skies and brought a swirling mass of rain clouds above the whole town of Canterlot. She made everything dark, and then bought down a storm of rain.

Cross Fire paced back and forth in front of the group of 8. The odds seemed low for her, but some of the soldiers were in no condition to fight which stacked the odds in her favor. She made her move. She dived directly at Lyra assuming she was the weakest of the lot and got a perfect kick into her side, before quickly following it up with a blow to her fore head.  Lyra was on the ground in seconds struggling to catch a single slither of air as blood started to find its way to the sites of the injuries. The group took this as a moment to attack Cross Fire, but she was more than ready for them as she countered and dodge every single hit they threw at her, pushing them back, and winding them all. They all pulled up their hoof guns except for Lyra and Derpy, and fired a shot each, except for Twilight who fired multiple, being the only one with a semi automatic weapon, but Luna had expected them to try and use their weapons, and stopped the bullets from even reaching a one meter distance from Cross Fire. She seemed to be protecting her with an impenetrable bubble that the bullets couldn’t go through. They all got up and prepared for a second strike, except Derpy who had a surprise idea that seemed the only option that proved a chance. She flicked out her hoof guns blade and waited for the perfect moment. Cross Fire may have been an earth pony, but that gave her strength over the pegasi and unicorns. The only one able to actually meet her strength was Applejack. But not wanting to risk being overpowered, Cross Fire took a cheap but powerful swing at Applejack’s gut, and sent her skidding meters away clutching her stomach in pain. This was exactly the moment Derpy needed. Without hesitation as soon as Cross Fire shifted her gaze to Applejack, Derpy launched herself at Cross Fire and impaled the long, blood stained blade straight through her, and pulled her into it watching as the sharp metal exited the through the other side of her body. Derpy had done it. She’d managed to lethally injure Cross Fire before she could kill anypony.

Twilight was seeing this through Derpy’s eyes and became confused.

‘This can’t be right… she said no pony made it out but her.’

But then Derpy looked up, and she saw why.

Derpy removed her blade from the earth pony’s stomach and flicked it back into place. She watched as Cross Fire collapsed clutching at the wound and screaming as blood and stomach fluid from the blade going straight through her stomach, was seeping out both open wounds and pooling in a filthy puddle beneath her. But then Luna let out a sharp cry and dived at Derpy putting all the force of her landing right into her hip. Derpy let out a massive, horrible cry as she was thrown meters away from Cross Fire’s limp body. She couldn’t move. The pain in her hip was unlike anything she’d ever felt, even worse than having her throat cut open. Luna pinned the others down with red lightning summoned by her magic, and then looked at her slowly dying soldier. She touched her horn to the wound and it lit with energy. Cross Fire let out a weak cry of pain, but it stopped hurting quickly. The energy was healing her. Luna was giving her own life force to save her soldier.

“That’s not fair!” Derpy weakly spat trying to stand up, but the injury was so painful she could hardly stand at all, and just collapsed again.

Cross Fire lay still for a few seconds before getting up.

“One moment of weakness, I assure you it won’t happen again Princess.” She said to Luna who was grinning.

“I know.” Luna said as she used her magic to drive a massive surge of electric energy through the 7 ponies on the ground. Lyra was hardly moving, and her breathing was reduced to hopeless panting. The others seemed to be in almost similar states. They knew they were done for.

“Finish them off.” Luna instructed her, but walked over to Twilight before departing.

“It was a valiant effort, but without the elements of harmony, you’ll never defeat us!” Luna yelled, walking off towards Canterlot Castle.

'How does she know about the elements of harmony?! I thought they didn't exist in this dimension!' Twilight pondered as she watched the memory continue.

Twilight didn’t know what she was talking about, but she knew that it was all over regardless. Cross Fire walked over to her and took her hoof gun from her.

“I think I’d much prefer a fast shooter to a single shot one," she said slipping it on her own hoof. She pointed the weapon directly at Twilight’s head. “Any last words?” she asked with a wicked smile across her face.

Twilight glanced at her friends for one final look. She spoke slowly, and prepared for the inevitable.

“I’m sorry I failed you all.” Twilight said to her friends, before Cross Fire pushed the lever down and fired a round straight into Twilight’s head. It blew apart instantly as part of her brain splattered with a sickish plop on the ground.

The other girls screamed at the same time, almost synchronized. “TWILIGHT!”

“Pity; she could have been quite an addition to the Lunar army. How bout you next?” she said pointing to Pinkie.

She came over and pressed her head tightly against the ground. Pinkie grimaced and whimpered, but was ready for what was going to happen. She closed her eyes, and relaxed as best she could, before the trigger was pulled on her too. Her brain followed up Twilight’s, lying on the floor in a pile of mess and sticky remains.

“This is fun! I never got to be an executioner before!” Cross Fire said as she moved on to Fluttershy. She rested the gun on her forehead, “Seems like it would be a large crime to take such a kind soul…” She said. Fluttershy ignored her, following in Pinkie’s footsteps, relaxing and preparing.

“Just do it you coward!” Fluttershy yelled defiantly.

Angered by Fluttershy’s choice of words, she pulled the trigger, and watched as the right side of Fluttershy’s head shattered into fragments of bloody skin, bone, and brain.

“Then again, it’s a large crime to take any soul.” she finished laughing. She went to Rainbow Dash next. “All sorts of colors on you, how bout we find out if your blood’s as rainbow as your mane?” she said before yet again pulling the trigger. The bloody remains didn’t seem to look any different from the others.

“Hmm, what a shame.” Cross Fire remarked. “Your turn!” She said trotting over to Rarity.

“You’re a pretty one. What’s a mare such as yourself fighting a bloody war for anyway?” she asked teasing Rarity.

“Looks don’t have anything to do with skill!” Rarity yelled using her remaining strength to kick Cross Fire’s leg and leap at her tackling her across the footpath. But her punches were far too weak, and she was thrown back almost straight away. She had dealt some damage but not enough to faze Cross Fire.

Cross Fire spat out a small half mouth amount of blood. “You’ve got a nasty bite!” She said pointing the gun to Rarity’s mouth and pulling the trigger. The bullet emerged out the other side of her mouth. Cross Fire launched one more shot into her brain, but it didn’t splatter like the others.

“Guess it’s your turn!” she said jumping over to Applejack. “You were the toughest of the lot, I wonder if you’ll be able to fight a bullet.” She said.

“Stop stalling and just do it already! I don’t wanna hear what you have to say!” Applejack yelled. Her best friends were dead and she felt horrible; she just wanted it to end.

Cross Fire smiled. “Oh hush now, I’m trying to build up the suspense a little. It’ll make your sister’s reaction so much more precious.”

“What- What are you- talkin about?!” Applejack asked worried. Cross Fire pointed her hoof in the direction the two fillies had run off in and Applejack looked over. Derpy looked over herself to see what she meant.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo had been sitting there the whole time, they saw everything, and they were horrified. Apple Bloom was shaking so hard she thought she would collapse at any second.

“You know I might see if she’s as tough as you once I’ve dealt with the other two.” Cross Fire chuckled as she pointed the hoof gun at Applejack’s head. But that was the biggest mistake she’d ever made. Before Cross Fire could even react Applejack spun around and kicked her right where Rarity had before, but completely shattered that portion of her leg just above her hoof, and jumped up shoving her almost 5 meters away.

“You can take my life today, but you will NEVER LAY A HOOF ON MY SISTER!” Applejack yelled loud enough to deafen the crippled earth pony. She leapt at Cross Fire and began to rain down punches upon her face. She smashed her hooves into Cross Fire relentlessly, but her strength had started to quickly deplete. Knowing that soon all her energy would leave her, she used most of it to call out to Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. “You two have to run! Now!” she yelled. This time the girls listened, but Cross Fire quickly kicked Applejack off and went to chase them, but she didn’t pay any attention to her severely broken leg and instantly collapsed on it, causing herself more unnecasary torrents of pain. She cursed under her breath. They’d gotten away.

Cross Fire spat out a mouth full of blood, and tried her best to ignore the pain in the bleeding cuts and bruises Applejack had left all over her face. She used her three good legs and walked back over to Applejack, intent on finishing her off point blank. Derpy had started to feel the pain settle, and managed to stand up. No pony noticed her, so she decided to harness the opportunity to get one last strike in on Cross Fire. She flicked out her red, blood glazed blade one more time, and galloped right at the limping mare. She launched herself at Cross Fire and with one swift movement, cut open Cross Fire’s injured leg. Cross Fire collapsed instantly and yelped in extravagant pain, as blood begun pouring out of her open leg with muscle flaps and broken bone exposed. Derpy got up again and grunted shaking off the pain that was bothering her.

“You’ll pay for all the lives you’ve taken Cross Fire!” she said raising her blade again, but before she could bring it down, Cross Fire weakly lifted her arm and fired her hoof gun in an attempt to save herself. She hit Derpy right below the chest and the force of the bullet sent her flying back a few meters. Derpy was in pain, but she wasn’t as badly injured as she thought she would have been. The bullet hadn’t blown her apart like it did the others, but instead had stopped midway in her body. She was still able to stand up. But she didn’t have much strength left in her, and blood had already started to escape the wound. She walked towards Cross Fire, wobbling around a bit. Cross Fire was clutching her leg, and for fear of her life pulled up the hoof gun and shot again, but nothing happened. It just clicked. She pushed the lever a few more times but it kept making a click whenever she tried. ‘Empty clip!’ she thought to herself, but she didn’t have any access to another one. She was severely injured, but as Derpy approached her, she rolled over and grabbed Applejack’s neck. Derpy stopped in her path.

“Move any closer and she dies!” she threatened holding her neck on a slight angle.

Derpy started to back down, but Applejack choked out a sentence.

“Derpy, don’t worry about me. I’m a goner anyways. She’ll die of blood loss before Luna comes back. Go save the fillies and the slaves.”

“But I can take her out right now…” Derpy objected.

“Derpy you’ve already taken her out, she’s a goner, but so are you and the slaves if you don’t go to them. You may not feel that shot now, but it will kill you if you don’t get help. You heard what Twilight said! Go! Run now!” Applejack said.

Derpy glared at Cross Fire and tears started rolling out of her eyes. She bit her lip and tried to resist the urge to attack Cross Fire. She knew Applejack was right.

“If I’m going down, you’re all going down!” Cross Fire yelled, twisting Applejack’s neck and snapping it. Applejack’s head fell to the ground with a thud and her life left her body.

“NO!” Derpy yelled, unable to properly process that her friend had just been mercilessly killed.

She completely repressed the pain in her body and kicked Cross Fire across the courtyard, and she clashed into a building with a deadly crunch. But before Derpy could charge again, a magical aura appeared before her and stopped her. It was Lyra.

She was battered, bruised, had singed fur on many parts of her coat, very badly scarred, and bleeding, but she had enough energy left in her to bring up a force field.

“Derpy ! Go save the slaves! Don’t let the mission be failed just like this! Applejack and Twilight gave you specific commands. Follow them!” her voice was weak, but she was able to get the whole sentence out.

“Lyra, I can’t leave you here while she still lives. You’re the last living unicorn now! I have to protect you!” Derpy said pushing at the force field, trying to get the last lethal attack on Cross Fire.

“Derpy, look at me! I’ll never make it back to the base before I bleed out. You still have a chance if you leave right now! It’s the only chance you’re gunna get! Go now!”

Derpy was angry, but she couldn’t ignore her friend. All her emotions were building up and conflicting in her brain. It was the only pain she could feel at the moment, the rest was being repressed by her anger.

“Don’t let her leave here alive Lyra.”

Derpy ran towards the entrance to the city, but stopped at the same place the fillies had when they were watching the terrifying scene. She didn’t want to leave Lyra alone. She felt like a coward. She turned around and watched on; she needed to see what was going to happen to Lyra.

Lyra had turned her attention to the pile of rubble surrounding Cross Fire. Cross Fire had almost no energy left in her, but Lyra didn’t have much either. Cross Fire started dragging herself towards the Unicorn after she noticed she was still alive. Her leg wasn’t completely severed, or even hanging off for that matter. But it was deeply cut and the bones inside it where destroyed, without an enormous amount of magical aid, she’d never use the leg again. She crawled over to Lyra who was trying to think of a way she could use her magic to save herself. She levitated Pinkie’s hoof gun off her body, threw her broken one down, and slipped on Pinkie’s, but by the time she’d pointed the loaded weapon at Cross Fire she was close enough to smack it aside and pound Lyra on the chest, and snatch the weapon up for herself. Lyra skidded a meter away and clutched her stomach which had started to bleed out of the open wounds even more. Cross Fire crawled over to her, grabbed her head and shoved her into the ground, graphically breaking hear nose. Lyra had a blood ring around her whole snout and had mucus and blood pouring out of it. The whole thing was a disfigured mess, and the fluids in Lyra’s mouth tasted revolting. Her face was in so much pain she could hardly even breathe anymore.

“So much for the last of the unicorns!” Cross Fire yelled triumphantly, shoving Lyra’s head into the ground again, and cracking her horn all the way through. With her own hooves Cross Fire crushed the breaking horn into many pieces that flew outwards, but something else happened. The horn exploded with light as it shattered which threw Cross Fire flying meters away landing next to Applejack. The explosion was buzzing with magic and seemed to be growing the horn back. But Cross Fire had no intention of letting the last unicorn in Equestria go. She pointed the gun at her head and shot with extreme accuracy. Lyra collapsed to the ground along with fragments of her horn skull and brain, while her disfigured, mutilated mouth oozed out more and more blood and mucus. Lyra was finished. Derpy was horrified. The last unicorn in the world, and a close friend of her own, was now gone. She wanted to go back and strike Cross Fire to a pulp, but she had to honor her friend’s final requests. She watched as Cross Fire struggled to stand up much longer. But she thought she saw Applejack’s arm suddenly rise to the air. She did. ‘How in the name of Celestia could she still be alive?!’ she thought. But to her horror, Cross Fire noticed it too. She cocked the hoof gun and put a bullet in her head. The arm fell limply to the ground. Derpy backed away, she had to leave; she couldn’t bear to see any more. Her team; Her close friends; the last of the unicorns… all dead. She put all her energy into getting to the gates of Canterlot, she collapsed outside of them looking at her stomach. The bullet wound was bleeding more than before and had made a red patch of bloody fur.

The slave ponies were quick to come to her aid. She wasn’t able to walk, so they carried her. Apple Bloom looked behind her but her expression saddened instantly and almost resembled Derpy’s. She followed the large crowd of slaves crying her eyes out, while Scootaloo did the best she could to comfort her, while dealing with seeing Rainbow dash so violently murdered.

Twilight was sick of watching the memory now, she couldn’t believe that Derpy had gone through so much. She hoped for Derpy’s sake that Cross Fire had suffered a slow death, but that wouldn’t have even nearly compensated for all the other’s deaths.

Derpy flickered through the memories again, which were almost at an end. She directed the slave ponies throughout the night, all the way to the base. She received urgent medical and magical care from medics and Celestia, and received a commendation and rank as commander for pulling through and bringing back the slaves after suffering through everything she had.

Twilight disconnected her horn from Derpy, who had tears rolling down her face. Twilight didn’t know whether she wanted to vomit or cry. She’d seen so many things she never expected to see.

“So now you know Twilight. The version of you from this dimension was a fierce and dedicated leader, loyal to her friends to the end; while I’m just a coward who left them all there at the hands of Cross Fire. I don’t deserve Twilight’s old rank. I hardly deserve to even be here right now.” Derpy cried as she collapsed to the ground unable to handle her emotions.

“Derpy you can’t talk like that. You had no other option…” Twilight tried to argue.

“But I’m the reason all the unicorns are dead! That the team is dead! I could have saved Lyra…” Derpy tried to finish, but Twilight cut her off.

“But she stopped you! She knew her time was up. She did it to save you. None of it was your fault. Luna and Cross Fire didn’t fight fair! They’re the only ones at fault.”

“But…”

“Derpy I’m telling you. I can tell just from what I’ve seen. Lyra was trying to save you, and she succeeded, she knew she would die that night, but if you had ignored her, she would have died in vain. You honored her request and survived. It’s ok to be upset about what happened. But you can’t pin the blame on yourself.” Twilight said.

“I’m not arguing with you over this Twilight!”

“Then don’t! Just listen instead and don’t argue. It, wasn’t, your, fault! You are not a coward! I’m amazed you’re still standing here today. You’ve pulled through things I never even considered plausible, and things a full grown stallion could hardly stand.” You are more than worthy of position as a commander and the Twilight you knew, would be proud of you.”

Derpy was shocked. She hardly knew this Twilight and here she felt like she was her best friend. She was so much like the Twilight she used to know: Kind and always sticking up for her friends. Derpy let the tears keep rolling, but accepted that no matter what she said from this point on, if it was negative, Twilight would force her to think positive.

Twilight pulled Derpy into a hug, as Derpy continued to let her emotions pour out.

“You might not believe in yourself Derpy, but I do, and I’m sure that every single pony you saved that night does too.” Twilight finished talking and broke off her embrace.

Derpy sniffed and wiped her eyes, and somehow found herself starting to smile. Twilight’s speech was the perfect thing she needed to lift her spirit.

“Thank you Twilight… I-I really needed that.” She said grateful for everything Twilight had said.

“I meant every word of it. Now let’s go see the princess, any more stops and we might not ever see her at all.” Twilight said chuckling a little at the end.

“Ok,” she sniffed again to try and get the mucus in the front of her nose back, and stop as many tears from flowing. “I’ll lead the way. We should be there very shortly.”